Slouchy silhouettes, distressed denim and details of thick faux fur staged a desirable picture of Baltic youth-culture through streetwear elevated for the catwalk at Racer Worldwide’s Autumn / Winter 2024 collection Core Memory in Paris. Mihhail Zigadlo the CEO and creative director of Racer Worldwide joined forces with another creative director, Anna Himma, to release this well-received fashion week debut. Writing to METAL from Estonia’s cold, snowy but magical Winter, the two reflect on the impact of their youth on designs that feel fresh.
Nostalgia, as the designer Mihhail Zigadlo details, can be misleading and addictive but the benefits of it can be enjoyed in fashion. Their reimagining of past codes is playful, even if one slogan top reads “Trauma is a Hard Core Memory”. Conceptually, Anna Himma underlines the influence and significance of Estonia’s political reality since leaving the Soviet Union in 1991. She shares their romantic view of the past comes from the perspective of growing up in an “ex-Soviet country where all the Western culture we consumed and longed for daily wasn’t at all our reality.” Struggle and resilience etches the worn-looking leathers and denim.
A video on Racer Worldwide’s TikTok puts their stylish garments in a harsh context of living in a squat, as the model washes her hair in a plastic bucket. The brand’s explanation of their collection and latest exclusive editorial seems to shed light on this choice too. “The collection offers a playful critique of fleeting Western teen trends from the late 2000s and early 2010s, seen through the lens of a lingering Soviet-era inferiority complex. With nuanced references to the notion of being “so close yet so far,” the campaign presents a sharp, post-ironic reflection on the era.” With super-stylish fans like Yves Tumor, we know that Racer Worldwide has got their finger on the pulse.
Anna Himma
Mihhail Zigadlo
I want to begin by asking you both about your hometown of Tallinn. I’ve never been before. What was it like growing up here, and what is it like working in the city today as young designers?
Mihhail: It’s the most peaceful place in the world. It’s a very small city — less than half a million people live here. When I come back to my home city from a work trip in some major capital, I feel like I’m on a retreat, in the countryside maybe. Winters are cold and snowy but magical. Living and growing up in Tallinn contributed a lot to who I am and our brand. It might feel very isolated at times from the industry. And there was never a brand that reached international success whose footsteps we could follow. So, we had to create our own path. It made us quite unique. I feel like we are the most focused and the most bonded team. A lot of the people who we started with years ago, we still work with. A lot of them we went to school with and are friends with.
Anna: Tallinn has changed a lot over the course of my life. Estonia only became sovereign from the Soviet Union in 1991 so the change from an ex-communist country under foreign power to an independent nation has been quite extreme. Growing up in Tallinn, I personally have never felt the presence of a big creative community because as a young country with a very small population, that can just be hard to find. I found my creative peers after leaving Tallinn and to this day I feel that most of my life and relationships exist outside of the city. But it is always a nice, calm sanctuary to come back to. Nowadays my work in Tallinn only involves working with Racer and that has been a very nice and collaborative experience.
Anna: Tallinn has changed a lot over the course of my life. Estonia only became sovereign from the Soviet Union in 1991 so the change from an ex-communist country under foreign power to an independent nation has been quite extreme. Growing up in Tallinn, I personally have never felt the presence of a big creative community because as a young country with a very small population, that can just be hard to find. I found my creative peers after leaving Tallinn and to this day I feel that most of my life and relationships exist outside of the city. But it is always a nice, calm sanctuary to come back to. Nowadays my work in Tallinn only involves working with Racer and that has been a very nice and collaborative experience.
Can you recall your first foray into the fashion world? Was there a specific designer, or a garment, or something else that drew you in initially?
Mihhail: For me, it was always a will to unite friends and creatives around a project and to build something together. Then came the understanding that in order for this to become our life’s work, we had to grow beyond the borders of our home.
Anna: I have a specific memory. The first vivid experience for me was when I was nine and on holiday in Turkey with my aunt. I think by that time I had seen some images from Margiela and John Paul Gaultier runways that had left quite an impression on me. I was a big fan of R&B and pop music at the time, so the music videos were quite the influence. I also remember the obsession with Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon during that time. I had got some pocket money from my parents for this holiday trip, so I started to obsessively hunt for an outfit that would be a mix of this R&B music video girlies aesthetic with Victoria-era cuts and elements. I dragged my aunt through Turkish markets and ended up getting a pink structured blazer, a pink mini skirt, and these strange ballerina shaped sneakers with ties going up the leg. I paired it with a fake tiny pink Puma bag and this necklace shaped like a Victorian-era tie that I had made for myself. I have to say, even today looking back I still don’t understand how I managed to find such unique pieces from a Turkish market and style them like that at 9 years old. The thrill of making an outfit come together feels exactly how it felt then. I became hooked.
Anna: I have a specific memory. The first vivid experience for me was when I was nine and on holiday in Turkey with my aunt. I think by that time I had seen some images from Margiela and John Paul Gaultier runways that had left quite an impression on me. I was a big fan of R&B and pop music at the time, so the music videos were quite the influence. I also remember the obsession with Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon during that time. I had got some pocket money from my parents for this holiday trip, so I started to obsessively hunt for an outfit that would be a mix of this R&B music video girlies aesthetic with Victoria-era cuts and elements. I dragged my aunt through Turkish markets and ended up getting a pink structured blazer, a pink mini skirt, and these strange ballerina shaped sneakers with ties going up the leg. I paired it with a fake tiny pink Puma bag and this necklace shaped like a Victorian-era tie that I had made for myself. I have to say, even today looking back I still don’t understand how I managed to find such unique pieces from a Turkish market and style them like that at 9 years old. The thrill of making an outfit come together feels exactly how it felt then. I became hooked.
Mihhail, you launched Racer Worldwide with your friends and collaborators in 2017, when you were only 16 years old. You’ve talked about how the label has its origins in friendship, and how the early days were marked by teenagers coming together in basements and backyards to create and sell clothes. I’m curious: how do you view the relationship between fashion and community? Is fashion design ultimately a communal affair?
Mihhail: I feel that I can never create alone. For me, designing is like ping pong. I like to bounce ideas off people and see their reaction. As we were building the brand, our bet was always to grow our own talent within the team. I feel like we have dedicated a lot of time and effort on that. A big part of our team doesn’t really have a professional education. As we grew, we had to constantly raise the bar for working in our team. But I feel like there is a tendency that the most dedicated and talented people in the community sooner or later start working with us.
What makes a collaboration successful?
Anna: For me, collaboration is really about being excited about similar things and sharing admiration for something. A successful collaboration, I think, is finding the perfect idea and pushing it to the maximum — believing in it totally. I’m also a firm believer that it has to be fun and feel good for it to be successful. With Misha and Racer, it has definitely felt like that.
Your website describes Racer as such: “Inspired by the youth culture now and before us, creating clothing that we dreamed to have when we were kids”. I think that this is a really beautiful, compelling declaration. What does youth culture look like to you at this moment in time?
Anna: I think it’s an interesting time in our culture right now. It feels like all the earlier 2000s eras have somehow culminated to this moment right now. Most of the culture is in one way or another operating on recent nostalgia.
Mihhail: For me, I see the culture as being free, fast, on the limit even.
Mihhail: For me, I see the culture as being free, fast, on the limit even.
How do you feel about getting older? Does the notion of ageing ever frighten you?
Anna: I’m not sure, sometimes it does and sometimes it feels good to be smarter and more experienced than I was a couple years ago.
Mihhail: Not really. My advice is to listen to the youth.
Mihhail: Not really. My advice is to listen to the youth.
Your debut collection, Core Memory — which you presented at Paris Fashion Week earlier this year — references the aesthetic language of the mid-2000s to mid-2010s. I’m wondering how you see the role of nostalgia in your work? Is it true that the past is more interesting than the present?
Mihhail: There are these pictures, silhouettes, core memories, that I’ve seen as a kid that I just can’t unsee. I keep coming back to them in my work. Nostalgia is very sweet, but it often paints a misleading picture. It might even be addictive. I feel like fashion is the one place where we can really enjoy it without the drawbacks.
Anna: For this collection specifically, when Misha approached me to work with him, the first thing we agreed on was that the core of this was going to be this period between 2010 to 2015. We both felt that these were very formative years in terms of our taste developing and it just felt relevant to the whole team. I don’t personally think the past is better, but I think there is something absolutely beautiful about these memories of experiencing a track or a movie for the first time and the inspiration you felt in that moment. We were just romancing the past and doing that from the point of view of growing up in an ex-Soviet country where all the Western culture we consumed and longed for daily wasn’t at all our reality. So this bittersweet gap between what we saw versus what we lived is kind of the whole inspiration.
Anna: For this collection specifically, when Misha approached me to work with him, the first thing we agreed on was that the core of this was going to be this period between 2010 to 2015. We both felt that these were very formative years in terms of our taste developing and it just felt relevant to the whole team. I don’t personally think the past is better, but I think there is something absolutely beautiful about these memories of experiencing a track or a movie for the first time and the inspiration you felt in that moment. We were just romancing the past and doing that from the point of view of growing up in an ex-Soviet country where all the Western culture we consumed and longed for daily wasn’t at all our reality. So this bittersweet gap between what we saw versus what we lived is kind of the whole inspiration.
When I think of Racer, I think of distressed denim, washed leather, and slouchy silhouettes. There’s a sense of decay here that feels very intentional – these pieces are made to be worn again and again. When you think about your customers, who comes to mind? Where are they taking their Racer garments?
Anna: I think Racer is a bit like a state of mind and a bit of cultural commentary. Anyone who resonates with the brand can wear the clothes and style them however they please. Creativity is definitely at the core of the brand, but I think it always comes with a pinch of irony.
What’s next for Racer Worldwide? Are there any new projects or directions you’re excited about exploring in 2025?
Mihhail: Lots of world building — both physical and spiritual. Seven years ago, we set an impossible goal: to build an independent international fashion brand out of a very small country. I feel like it’s time to set some new impossible tasks.
